Abstract

Sustainability has been advanced as an important societal goal and one which
governments should adopt and implement. However, sustainability is complex
concept and one for which a firm consensus definition does not appear likely
any time soon. This paper briefly describes the conceptual background for a
discussion of sustainability and then reviews one of the first attempts by
the U.S. government to implement a policy specifically designed to promote
sustainability, the Environmental Protection Agency's Sustainable
Development Challenge Grant (SDCG) Program. The background for the program
and the experience of it's first year are examined and then a formal
decision analysis of the problem facing the SDCG program managers is
developed. The implications of this research for the SDCG and for other
government policy-making are discussed.